Starting right where I left off, I have six more Taylor Swift albums to rank, and I am not holding back.
In spot number six is the autumn essential, Red (Taylor’s Version). To be completely honest, I wasn’t familiar with this album until its re-release in 2021, and even then, it was much lower on my list, but it has quickly become a favorite of mine.
It is full of so many good songs to scream and cry to, and it goes through such a range of emotions. Red (Taylor’s Version) also has some of the most incredible vault tracks yet, such as “Nothing New” featuring a personal favorite artist, Phoebe Bridgers, and the ten-minute version of “All Too Well.” It has beautiful recordings of songs Swift had written in this era in 2012 for other artists such as Little Big Town. When deciding on my favorite song for this album, I could not possibly choose between “Stay, Stay, Stay” and “Holy Ground.”
Both are upbeat songs that talk so greatly about love. These songs are also in what I like to consider the sweet spot of the album, which consists of tracks nine through sixteen, and are, in my opinion, the best songs on Red (Taylor’s Version).
Now, much like Evermore, my least favorite track on this album is the title track “Red.” I find it a hard song to listen to with some of its lyrics, such as “Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead-end street,” making me cringe.
My fifth favorite album is Folklore, a gorgeous woodsy album Swift wrote amid the pandemic with help from Arron Dessner. Just about every song on this album has a deep sad, melancholy tone, but listeners have to fall in love with it and find a way to relate to each part.
Swift recalls past loves in this album, the craving for attention people often feel when in the spotlight, the story of a fictional teenage love triangle she created, and her life with her at the time boyfriend. Swift has said she was in a sort of old cabin in the woods mindset when drafting up this album, and for me, that is so apparent with the overall tone of the songs.
She uses such great storytelling and paints a beautiful picture throughout the seventeen tracks. This album consists of my favorite Taylor Swift songs, but that doesn’t stop me from having an album-specific favorite, and for me, that song would have to be “Mirrorball.”
When talking about the song in a documentary called Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, Swift describes the deep meaning within the song.
“We have mirrorballs in the middle of a dance floor because they reflect light, they are broken a million times, and that’s what makes them so shiny,” Swift said. “We have people like that in society, too. They hang there, and every time they break, it entertains us. And when you shine a light on them, it is this glittering, fantastic thing, but then a lot of the time when the spotlight is not on them, they are just still there on a pedestal, but nobody’s watching them.”
I simply do not understand how someone can listen to a song such as “Mirrorball” filled with such deep meaning and not feel a sense of profound relatability and yet sadness.
My least favorite song on this album is “Epiphany.” As the song was created as an homage to healthcare workers in WWII, I find it beautiful, but it does not fit quite with the tone and sound of the album as well as it should, and it, in a way, unsettles me. I also believe that this album is full of underrated songs, most notably “Peace” and “Hoax,” which are both beautiful love songs.
The album that started it all for me and my fourth favorite is 1989 and, most recently, 1989 (Taylor’s Version). The quintessential pop album of our generation. This album is responsible for Swift’s genre change and a cultural reset to the current pop icon she is.
This is a loud fun album full of love, friends and New York City. It is very rare to find someone who has heard 1989 hits such as “Shake it Off,” “Blank Space,” and the masterpiece single that is “Bad Blood.”
This album led to a whole new generation of Swifties, and it broadened Swift’s horizons and managed to make her even more mainstream than she already was.
I love absolutely everything about this album, including the fun experimental noise in the songs produced by Jack Antanoff, the heartwarming close-to-home lyrics and the obvious remarks about her relationship with singer Harry Styles at the time.
Not to mention, the vault tracks on this album are spectacular. Even when writing heartbreaking, emotional songs, Swift manages to put an upbeat pop twist that makes listeners forget the true feelings associated with the lyrics.
It is really hard to pick a favorite for this album, so once again, I chose two. My top favorite would have to be “You Are in Love.” I love how the song has a certain punch that comes along with the bold confession of love. For the vault track, I cannot help but choose “Is it Over Now?”
It has such a deep meaning to a specific moment in Swift’s life, and I cannot help but love the usage of the word maiden in the first verse.
My least favorite in 1989 is a smidge controversial due to it being so loved, but it is possibly my least favorite Swift song entirely, and that song would have to be “This Love.” Honestly, I cannot think of a single thing I like about this song. I do not like the lyrics one bit, and I hate how it sounds, and I simply just do not think it is Swift’s best work.
Near the top, at spot number three, is Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), which is a classic in my opinion. Throughout this album, there are fairytale nods and references to storytelling and books, and we start to see Swift grow up and become an adult.
It is in this very album that Swift writes a song forgiving Kanye West for the infamous 2008 VMAs. Writing this album was also such a powerful move for Swift, who, at the time, was getting criticized for not writing her own music, so as a bit of backlash, she wrote a whole album all by herself to prove to the world that she was an amazing songwriter.
This album was a huge risk for Swift, and she made that known at many points in this era that she thought it was going to be the end of her career and that she would be saying goodbye to her fans.
Thankfully, that was far from the truth, and the album went on to win Grammy awards when it was first released and became a fan favorite.
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is such a fun album to listen to, and in my opinion, the best example of this is in the song “The Story of Us,” in which Swift speaks the phrase “next chapter” before switching the verse, and she also sings “the story of us might be ending soon” when the song is indeed almost over with about a minute left.
I confidently believe a fantasy ballroom is the perfect way to describe the tone of this album, and it is essential to note Swift originally wanted to name the album Enchanted, which would have sealed that belief.
My favorite song from the album is “Long Live,” and I get chills with each listen. It is such a beautiful love letter to Swift’s fans, and I simply have to appreciate it. My least favorite song from this album is “Innocent.” which, as I mentioned earlier, is a song forgiving Kanye West. As much as I would like to, I cannot get behind the love for this song, it simply is not for me.
Placing at number two is the album Lover. For me, this album is a summer necessity, and it is chocked full of songs to scream in the car, which is really what makes a great album if you ask me.
However, with a title like Lover, people do not often realize this is arguably Swift’s saddest album. It has songs full of anxiety and fear in her life and relationships. It has a song about her mom having cancer and Swift not knowing what she would do if she lost her mom. It has songs such as “The Archer,” which is ridden with a feeling of anxiety and imaginary betrayal Swift fears.
It talks about the lows of her life, her fears in the world and the injustice she sees in online communities.
During this era, Swift was also taking a political stand, and she was not scared to sing about it in songs such as “You Need to Calm Down,” “Only the Young,” which is from her documentary Miss Americana, “Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince” and “The Man.” All these songs tackle politics in one way or another.
Swift also went to places such as Nashville to speak up for what she thought was right, which is a bold move for a singer to make. Every song on this album manages to be dramatic in the best way possible, and I have a strong appreciation for it.
I fell in love with this album, which makes it hard to pick a favorite song, but I would say “The Man.” It is such a powerful song, and listening to it manages to fill me with so much joy, but so does every other song on this album.
I do not have a least favorite song for this album. it is 100% no skips for me, but I do listen to one song way less than the others, and that song is “Soon You’ll Get Better,” which is the aforementioned song about Swift’s mother, only for the pure reason of avoiding tears.
Last and most importantly on this list is my #1 album, Reputation. A cultural reset and one of the most iconic comebacks in music history, if I do say so myself.
At first glance, this is an album of Swift reclaiming her name, and she is not doing it kindly, but when you listen to each track, it can be realized that, realistically, it has some of the most romantic songs written by Swift. She sings about falling in love and the bliss she is in. One of my favorite parts of this album is the very first sound we hear in the opening track, “…Ready For It?”
Swift clears her throat to say, “I’m not done yet,” and it gives me chills each time. I also love her nod to the 2016 Met Gala and her famous “bleachella” moment with the lyrics “flashback when you met me, your buzzcut and my hair bleached. Even in my worst times, you could see the best of me.”
If that is not love, I do not know what is.
She sings so often about this deep love she was in, how she desperately wanted to keep it all to herself for as long as possible, and how scared she was diving in too deep and too soon, but in the end, it turned out all right. My favorite track from this album is “Gorgeous.”
I just think it is so different from the rest of the album, and it is such a cute and energetic song. I cannot help but giggle at the sound of Ryan Reynold’s daughter James saying the word “gorgeous” at the start.
Even though I managed to do it for the past nine albums, I cannot choose the least favorite from Reputation, and I cannot even think of a song I skip or don’t listen to.
Now that I have ranked all of Swift’s albums, I think it is vital to give a huge shout-out to my favorite song of Swift’s, which is track fourteen on her album Folklore, the song “Betty.” I have such a deep-rooted love for the Folklore teenage love triangle, and I cannot help but love the strong emotions throughout the song, making it my favorite.
